Steve McQueen had just completed two war movies Hell Is For Heroes and The War Lover and told director John Sturges he was not interested in a third war movie in a row. Sturges asked if there was anything he could do to change his mind , McQueen said he would do it if he could perform a spectacular motorbike stunt and this was the result

There really was no way that movie nostalgia nerd Quentin Tarantino was going to cast John Travolta and not have a dance scene. We see that despite the dangers of falling for Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) Travolta’s Vincent Vega is being seriously seduced. In order for Tarantino to show how attracted they are to each other instead of jumping into bed they hit the dance floor

If you were studying to become a director then I think this would probably be the very best possible instructional video on how to build tension in a movie. It is so clear that John Doe played by Kevin Spacey is in charge. We feel the total hopelessness and complete loss of control of Mills perfectly performed by Brad Pitt in this ending scene from David Fincher’s 1995 masterpiece

It is at this point in the classic Scorsese gangster movie that we first get a real idea of just how dangerous Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) is. So far the movie has been a kind of romanticised gangster nostalgia trip. This ‘joke’ makes it clear that this world is very real and one wrong word might just be your last, the fact that there is no violence makes it seem even more threatening.